Friday, December 29, 2006

Addiction.


Nothing about my lifestyle indicates an addictive personality. I’m never interested in anything long enough to let it consume me or interfere with normal goings-on in my life—whatever they might be. I’ve attempted to pick up some new habits like sudoku, early morning jogs and weekly self-inflicted manis and pedis. I’m good for a while, but the new ideas soon fall by the wayside. I cannot stick to one genre of literature, there is no particular type of food that I will claim to “love” without crossing my fingers behind my back and there is no form of entertainment that I cannot live without. However, addiction terrifies me. (I think) I have an irrational fear of becoming addicted to something, so sub-consciously I do not allow myself to get too attached to anything like Diet Coke, a particular body lotion, tandoori chicken (which I’ve been out to eat three times in the last week), or that dynamite person who deserves more.

Despite the status quo, I’m still afraid of getting hooked.


junk


LGW Cover.jpgLet me take a moment and recommend Frank Beddor’s The Looking Glass Wars. I loved this book. From page one, I had to find what was going to happen next. It is a retelling of the story of Alice in Wonderland, her true story. I’d been eying it for a while at Aristoc’s bookstore, but I finally took the plunge. It is not the type of book that I would normally choose, but, as you know from the above entry, I do not stick to one genre of books. It is in the same vein as Wicked by Gregory McGuire, but not targeted so much for an adult audience. (As a matter of fact, I went out and bought a copy of Wicked after finishing The Looking Glass Wars. I read it a few years ago, but LGW sparked my interest again.) I loved Frank Beddor’s book so much that I ordered three more copies of it from Amazon.com and sent them a Christmas gifts.

EragonThanks to Pink is the New Blog I picked up a copy of Eragon recently. The film was about to arrive in Kampala, so I decided to read it before going to the movie. Again, fantasy is a genre that I am reluctant of pick up. A friend recommended Terry Brooks to me once, I read a couple of his books and really did not care to read anymore. I’ll admit to liking The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but I’ve not read any others by Tolkien. Overall, I enjoyed Eragon; I mailed a copy of it to my brother in Florida who is a huge fantasy fan. I will probably end up getting Eldest,the second book in the trilogy, as well. However, I must say that the book annoyed me in many ways. I did not like the relationships between the characters. They griped at each other too much and too easily. The relationship between boy and dragon was also disturbing. Eragon telling Saphira, the dragon, that he loved her was just weird to me.

I went to see the film version yesterday. It has an amazing cast: John Malkovich, Rachel Weisz, Jeremy Irons and Djimon Hounsou. That was all that was amazing about the film. It jumped way too much and left too many gaps. Will there be a sequel? I have no idea how well this film did in the states.

At present, I have a thing for Sex and the City. I could not get into it when it was such a popular his for HBO. I just bought the first season on dvd, and I’m reading Candice Bushnell’s book. What does that say about me?

Sex and the City


Blue.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Veronica Mars:

Keeping it Real


So the first half of the third season of Veronica Mars is over and, thanks to file sharing, I’ve been able enjoy the investigations our young sleuth here, in Uganda. To allay my sense of piracy guilt, I’ve put in an order for the first season of V on dvd, totally legit; people are getting paid. (Speaking of the fist season of Veronica Mars, I found a video store in downtown Kampala that actually has the entire first and second seasons of Veronica Mars on dvd for rent. I feel a New Year’s marathon blowin’ in the wind. After my catastrophic Christmas, I’m apprehensive. I know it sounds like a lame idea, but maybe ringin’ in the new year alone would be the wisest decision for me to make. But do I really possess that much wisdom?)

The rapist was revealed, but the first half of season three ended with several questions:

• Are Veronica and Logan dunzo?

• Will Wallace pass his engineering class?

• Who shot the dean?


Season three captivated my attention and left me with lingering questions throughout:

• When does Veronica find the time to put all those curls in her hair?

• Where did Parker get her wig? It looks just like real hair;

• When VM moved to The CW, did they get a larger production budget so they are now able to pay closer attention to details and have the make-up team working overtime extending the actors’ adolescence? There have been some major acne breakouts this season.


I’m really feeling Logan. I also suffered from body acne during my 20’s. Those on the back can be quite uncomfortable.


Ely’s pimples are a bit over done. They almost look like hives. Poor guy.

Flawless!
Christmas

in the KLA



It’s the 26th December, the day after Christmas, Boxing Day, a time to reflect on what the heck went on over the past few days. Well, I was in bed by 10:45 last night watching the Dixie Chick’s dvd Top of the World Tour: Live I borrowed from a friend yesterday. Last night was supposed to be a fun night out with friends, and it began that way, but it evolved into me being in a very bad mood (pissed off, if you will) and home alone. I have no interesting or humorous stories to share with you that would paint a picture of the events that lead up to a disappointing Christmas that would not make me look like a villain, so I’ll just tell you the best part of the past two days: making pizza with the Peace Corps Volunteers. I met many of the new PCVs at a house in Naguru; my friend Kristina invited them over. Kristina’s parents sent her a slab of German bacon for Christmas. (I know what you’re thinking: BACON: The best gift, EVER!) We chopped it up, fried it, topped a pizza with it and… Uhmmmm! Christmas night went downhill from there.

Kinda sucks.